by Rick Castellini
 

Spam used to be the biggest thorn in my computing side. Yes, I said 'used to be'. At Comdex 2003, I had the good fortune to meet and talk with representatives from Cloudmark [1]. I stopped at their booth because their approach to controlling the onslaught of spam (unwanted email) peaked my interest. Cloudmark's product for homes and small business is called SpamNet.

SpamNet works on a simple yet highly effective premise. That premise being that users know spam when they see spam. Cloudmark uses the power and the eye balls of nearly one million users to quickly identify and control spam. The product I reviewed currently works only with Outlook and Outlook Express. It will not work with online email servers like Yahoo or HotMail, and it doesn't work with AOL email.

The download of SpamNet takes about 8-12 minutes on a dial-up modem. To install, simply double-click the file you downloaded and follow the well worded easy to follow on-screen instructions. After installation, you will see a small, unobtrusive tool bar at the top of your email screen, like the one pictured above.

SpamNet starts working immediately. It looks through your email as it comes in and if it is determined to be spam, it is either:

1. Marked as spam and left in your Inbox
2. Moved to your Deleted Items folder
3. Moved to folder called Spam

I chose option three. You can choose what works best for you. You also have the choice of whether you want to be a "spam fighter". After SpamNet is through (and it works very quickly), if it happened to miss a spam, just click on it once and click the "Block" button to have it removed from your inbox.

In my testing over the past eight or so weeks, this product has saved me so much time and done such a good job at blocking spam, I stopped using my own anti-spam rules. It catches roughly 98% of all my spam (and I receive approximately 300 pieces of trash a day). During the course of my review, Cloudmark released an upgrade and the effectiveness of the software has stepped up even further. Also, during my review period, SpamNet only misidentified two emails (out of 21,000) as spam that were legitimate emails. This is called a 'false positive'. Of all the anti-spam products I have tested and studied, SpamNet has the lowest number of false positives and the highest percentage of spam caught.

The software is free, but this is a subscription service. Subscriptions run $3.99 per month or pay for one year and get two months free.

When I saw this product at Comdex 2003, I was hopeful this would be a product I could really use and recommend. I am here today to tell you that this product has superseded my expectations and makes my daily email reading enjoyable again. It has impressed me so much, that I am giving it my highest recommendation!

If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express and have trouble with spam, go to Cloudmark today and download your free 30 day trial. After 30 days, if you are excited about this product and how it has helped your email, subscribe using this special code from Cloudmark and get the service for just $1.99/month or $23.95 per year! That's more than 60% off! The code is:  23o4hl and it is only available here at HelpMeRick.com.

Castellini on Computers Rating (1-5 mics)
Recommended Market:	Anyone bothered by spam and who uses Outlook or Outlook Express
Approximate cost:	see review above for special discount
Company and Web Site:	Cloudmark [2]